1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus and a method for burnishing toothed gears to remove surface defects from the gear teeth.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional gear burnishing machines include toothed rotary tools supported in a spaced relationship to each other to receive a toothed gear that is rotatably supported on a pair of work spindles about an axis parallel to the axes about which the tools rotate. Driving of one or more of the tools meshes the tool teeth with the gear teeth so that pressure applied therebetween causes the harder teeth of the tools to remove surface defects from the softer gear teeth. Removal of the surface defects on the burnished gears lengthens their useful lifetime and also mitigates gear noise during use.
In order to have high production capacity, burnishing machines must include suitable mechanism for loading and unloading the gears. The work spindles that rotatably support the gears during the burnishing are conventionally supported for movement so as to perform the loading and unloading of the gears. Automatic conveyors have also been utilized to feed gear burnishing machines and receive burnished gears therefrom after being operated on by the machines.
Conventional apparatus like that described above is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos.: 1,993,605; 2,736,238; 2,830,712; 2,860,763; 3,315,541; 3,354,782; 3,587,816; 3,590,982; and 3,958,685.